The Masks We Wear
by Divinity1
Summary: What could have happened to Boba Fett after Attack of the Clones.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: The characters from Star Wars belong to their respective owner George Lucas and LucasFilms and no infringement is intended with this story. This is only a spin-off of sorts that is meant for entertainment purposes only and if you want to sue me you won't get far. I am a poor, poor college student. That is self explainitory.   
Rating: PG-13 for reference to violence, rating may change signifigantly in the future so just to be safe, if you are not compfortable with adult themes, please don't bother reading this :)   
Summary: This is perhaps just one possibility of what could have happened to Bubba Fett between The Attack of the Clones and the elder Star Wars movies. From the age of 8 to 25, if you please. Warning to all those with weak hearts...THIS IS A LOVE STORY. Perhaps angst...perhaps not. The outcome has not been decided ;) Maybe I'll make it a poll to vote either way..we'll see. Read and Review!! Pretty please :) 

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Beneath The Masks We Wear  


We found him when I was very young. My mother told me that I was five when Odysseus brought him to us. I remember looking at him from between the rails of the great staircase in our main hall and thinking what a scamp he appeared to be. At the time, of course I was filled with complete contempt. How dare he walk into my father's house with common dirt upon his shoes! I was absolutely sure that father would turn the boy away, but to my surprise, my father nodded solemnly to whatever Odysseus had to say and with that the boy became part of the family. 

Well, sort of. He didn't actually become anything near a friend to me until much later in this story. Actually I avoided the boy like the plague for weeks. My mother had informed me that his name was Boba, he was eight years old, and I was to treat him nicely because his father had "served honorably". In my innocence, I held that in an uncertain awe because mother often reminded me how loyal my father was to his supreme. If only I had known then what I know now…

Let it be known that I didn't really know my father much. Mother talked about him all the time, but rarely did he see fit to visit us. As a child, I was completely oblivious to it all and time seemed to pass so quickly for me between his visits. I didn't even notice the oddness of his appearance every day after the boy was left with us. Not until it was too late…much too late.

I started having nightmares at night that would shake the foundation of my innocence. Each night I awoke to a shrill scream that scared me beyond belief. That pesky closet monster… he must have come with the boy. Obviously it was because I had never heard such screaming before. Tearfully blaming the boy and muttering all the delicate babble I knew, I would go back to sleep. Unfortunately the dreams started reoccurring in the light of day. At odd times, I would hear things being thrown and shouts from distant rooms in the house. Coincidentally I started seeing less and less of my mother or father. My world was turned completely upside down. I spent a lot of my time in my secret hiding place in the gardens. Towards the back, behind the grand aqua pools there was a small grove of trees that made up the back of my father's garden. In the very right corner there was a very tall elm tree that seemed to be graced with millions of branches. It was the absolute perfect place to hide when things got tough. 

It was only three years later that, after hearing those screams again that I routinely fled to my place and was absolutely galled to see that _bastard_ (I had learned that word quietly from the kids around town. I scarcely knew what it meant- mainly that it was an insult to a boy) in my tree! With a quick wipe of the tears from my eyes, I indignantly shouted up to him to get away from my tree. 

With a slow glance towards the house, almost as if to watch for something, he jumped down from the tree and moved to help me up. Oh boy, did that confuse me. I was at the point where I wasn't sure if I still hated him or not because father had insisted on cleaning him up years ago and he was starting to grow quite taller than me. With resignation I noted that he was becoming more grown up every day in his expressions. 

Needless to say, _it was_ rather difficult to get into my special tree so I accepted his help curtly. It was so for several more years as I grew closer to him and gradually accepted him as somewhat like a brother. Though I still held him at a distance during the day, making sure not to be seen socializing with him, I started to rely on him at night. I had finally convinced myself that the screams were not his doing and as they grew worse, one night I found myself running to his room for solace. I tip toed down the hall to his room and I was so afraid to that I would stir the shouting and screaming that I dared not knock. So I just slipped in. Once inside two almost glowing eyes that were watching me from across the room met me. As my eyes adjusted to the dark of his room, I could see him clutching his bed covers tightly around himself with a deep scowl on his boyish face. Without waiting for him to talk, I horridly explained in a soft whisper.

"It's the screams, Boba…they scare me. Can I stay in here with you? You don't seem to be scared. Can I stay just until they pass?" I whispered the questions so quickly that I was frightened to think that he may not have made out what I said. I was so thankful when he simply let loose his tight hold on the covers and pulled them to the side. Like a the small child that I was, I ran as fast as I could and hopped in beside him, quickly curling into a ball and keeping myself turned away from him as if he was not even there. But he was and I knew it. It was all I needed to fall back asleep. I was out so quick I never even felt him cover me up and give me a brief hug before he turned over onto his back and threw a long boyish arm over his eyes.

It was the summer of my twelfth year that I found myself disturbed by the screams again. It was in the middle of the day and it was remarkably a lot like the day that he and I became friends, if you could call it that, of course. As what had become our ritual, Boba was sitting underneath my tree when I arrived. Dutifully he leaned over and clasped his hands together to help me into the tree to hide. 

As I stepped onto his clasped hands and he raised me up into the tree, he whispered, "Stay here." I was a little confused. These were the first words he'd said to me since he had come to stay with us. In the six years that I had lived under the same roof as he, I had finally assumed that he was mute. 

At my current age, my wits were just starting to quicken so I quickly retaliated. "No." was my immediate reply. Whether or not I intended to stay was beside the point. Suddenly his face turned incredibly solemn and he sighed wearily. 

"Please stay here until I come back, Lily. It is really important. Promise me." He insisted in a deeply mature voice that I found myself responding to. I was captivated by the urgency in his voice and finally consented with a nod. 

"Okay…" I responded hesitantly. "But you will come back, right?" Suddenly I was so afraid to be alone. All the screams from the last few years were coming back and the hairs on the back of my neck was standing on end. Up until then I had blocked the resemblance of the screams to my mother's soft voice, but in that moment I was so afraid that I could scarcely move if I'd wanted to.

"Of course I will, just be quiet and stay hidden." He reassured rather unsteadily as he backed away from the tree and towards the house. I was forced to change my opinions of him in that moment. For all my twelve years, I had never trusted anyone as much as I trusted him at that moment. 

Yes, he came back and ushered me back into the house and things continued on as normal…almost. For a few days following the incident, I searched for my father and finally I found him in the training room with Boba. What I saw before me was somewhat grueling and it took everything I had not to cry for them to stop. Instead of training, it seemed more to me like a never-ending beating of the boy. Every twist and dodge that he scored over my father, my father came back and punched him mercilessly with his fist. 

Finally it was my sniffling that stopped the two. First Boba stopped and looked in my direction and just as he was about to walk towards me, my father slammed his staff into his stomach, causing him to double over and gasp for breath. Then calmly, my father looked in my direction and I was shocked to see the coldness in his eyes. Where was my father? Since when had he looked like this? Scared witless, I barely managed to stutter out my question before he barked at me to tell him what the _hell_ I wanted.

"What?" He roared savagely, but thankfully not moving from where he stood. Boba, however, snapped his head up to look at me with fearful eyes. "What, " her father repeated, "did you say?"

"Where…" I mumbled frightfully. "Where is mother? I have not seen her for days, she hasn't been at our meals, and." I trailed off as he started stalking towards me. I didn't know what was so wrong with my question at the time, but my instincts immediately reacted with the look on his face and the gait of his stride. I did the only thing I knew to do. I fled. 

But not far before I tripped over a discarded staff and knocked my head on the floor. With a gasp, I started gasping hysterically in fear and pain as I tried crawling towards the door. I felt the air behind me move swiftly as my father tried to swipe me with his staff. Confused with the fact that he had missed, I made the mistake of glancing back. To my dismay, Boba had pushed my father and was now the center of his attention. Without a staff or weapon, the fifteen year old was hardly a match for my father. Brokenly I knew my father would never stop beating him.

Frozen in my place with fear, I was abruptly awoken when Boba looked up from his place on the floor- the blood running down his nose and his already swollen eyes turning even darker shades of black- and mouthed, "Go _hide_." My guilt has eaten at me since then, but I ran and hid in my tree. I stayed there and hid for hours, days, and suddenly a full week had passed. I was aching and starving, but terrified to go back into that house. Only the large branches of the tree kept my exhausted body off the ground where I could be seen. After the fourth day I think I drifted in and out of consciousness. After the 5th day, I started genuinely wondering if he would ever come out to get me. What if he was gone like my mother? I was still at odds with myself on whether she was dead or simply _gone_. Perhaps I just didn't want to see the truth still. Nonetheless on the seventh day I awoke in my bed to a nurse attending me. I quietly asked her what happened after I left and she just shook her head and refused to comment. After I ate, I slid off the bed onto wobbly feet and stumbled to Boba's room. It was empty.


	2. Chapter 2

I waited for him. Just like I waited for my mother. I several days pretending that nothing had ever happened, and just like my mother, he never came. But I knew that my father would. In the weeks after I woke up, I had begun to fall into a normal routine. It was definitely not a normal routine, but it got me through. I woke up every morning to the same screams, but this time, of course, they were in my head. I had nowhere to go. It was only Misuka, the nurse that kept me going. She fed me and clothed me but yet insisted that I begin reading to the staff's children every evening. 

It was a wise choice because it was a time that I could spend in tear-free thought. The most upfront thing on my mind at all times was somewhat of a revolution. I often mentioned to Misuka about how much I wanted to kill my father. Eventually Misuka had told me what she knew of that dreadful day. She said that he beat Boba until Dansu snuck up behind him and cracked him in the head. This shocked me mainly because Dansu was my father's right hand man. He had been since father was a young boy. So in clear defiance to my father, Dansu took Boba away only to return when my father awoke. 

When asked about the boy, Dansu shrugged and said that he died and no one mentioned it again. I was heartbroken when Misuka told me about it. Unlike my mother, the honorable Dansu had confirmed his death. It was against Dansu's beliefs to lie. My father never asked who hit him so it was never necessary to lie about it and for that I am relieved. Apparently father left and did not return until two months later. 

When father returned I knew that it was time that I left. As far as I knew, he did not know I had returned. I was trying to think of a place to go when my father called me. In a panic, I threw open the drawers of my dresser and I was startled to discover that my clothes were gone.

Sure I was walking to my death, I started towards my father's study and I was about to open the door- my hand was only inches from the palm pad- when I felt a small hand grab my arm. 

"What are you doing?" Misuka asked horridly. She was already ushering me towards the staircase and down as she waited for my response. 

"I have to go, Misuka. He's taken my clothes and personal belongings. He even took my phoenix."

"You silly bird," she whispered urgently. "I packed your things. Do you really think that pig would have any idea how much the phoenix means to you?"

"Oh ... " I was speechless as I let her lead me outside.

"Stop dawdling and come on." She insisted. "You'll be back and when you do, he will go running." Without even asking where we were going or what she was talking about I ran with her. Anything was better than where I would have been. 

Once outside, I saw Dansu and all the women and children of Broguewick. They were all stuffed into a small transport with a maximum capacity of maybe fifteen. Tears swelled in my blue eyes at the sight of thirty or so fear filled eyes staring at me expectantly. With not even one glance behind me, I crawled into the transport, taking up the only remaining space that was barely big enough for Misuka and I.

With a grim Dansu at the controls, the small transport shook as it fought to lift our weight. To my relief, the small ship rose and we were carried up into the stars. As we entered the space above my home planet, I looked around me at all the housekeepers, maids, and kitchen staff and wondered about the look on his face when he noticed his staff gone. He would be furious. Though a few males remained, those were a part of his personal guard. When my gaze rested on Dansu, I realized that the biggest betrayal would be him.

With a sigh, I rested my head on Misuka's shoulder and looked out the ship's small cargo window. I knew that at twelve years old and this being my first trip to the stars that I should be filled with excitement and awe but I could barely stand the sight before me. All I could wonder is the "_what if"_ factor. What if I had never asked about my mother? Then I would have never provoked my father, Boba would still be alive and quite possibly he would be there with me then to share the stars. The self-blame was enough to make my eyes burn against the bitterness. So I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

The next morning I did not wake up to the screaming. Whether that was because I was shaken awake by Misuka because we had landed, or not … I don't know. All thirty or so of us stumbled clumsily out of the small ship and looking back at it while shielding my eyes from the glare of a new morning's sun, I found that ship to be one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Even with it's graffiti pained hull.

When I turned back around I could have almost cried. Where was the ground? Where were the trees? Skyscrapers surrounded me and from the landing platform that we were on, I could not see anything but the silver glint of building after building. Except for the zipping back and forth of transports and cargo vessels, I could see nothing _but_buildings. As a country girl I had never seen so much metal and…emptiness in such a busy place. There would definitely not be a hiding tree there…

"Coruscant" Misuka whispered in my ear. "We are on Curoscant."

"How do you know that?" I whispered back as we were all ushered down a set of staircases.

Biting her lower lip, Misuka just murmured, "I just know." I suspected something odd from the moment she said that vague response. I felt slightly betrayed that she did not trust me with the truth, but I simply reminded myself that up until the past few months, I had only seen Misuka occasionally around the grounds. 

As a congregation we were all herded into a large lobby where as we entered, I heard a huge collective gasp. When I came out of my initial stupor I realized exactly what they were astonished by. The room was bathed in gold. Perhaps not real gold, but gold in color nonetheless. The green and gold combination gave the appearance of sophistication and thankfully, it gave a more warm feeling than the cold steel colors that resided outside. For the first time since we had arrived, I started to wonder what kind of a place this was. 

A loud creak signaled the arrival of a cascade of green-cloaked figures through two grand doors. Heads bowed, they were lead by a woman donning a deep golden cloak and as she lead the way towards us, they parted behind her to form a wide U-shaped arch around us. A few giggles were heard from the maids in my company and I felt like giggling myself. The cloaks were made of a grand material. Definitely nothing like the coarse wool that I was accustomed to. They seem luminescent as if they glowed of the colors surrounding them. 

Perhaps they were religious leaders? Priestesses? In my life, I had yet to encounter any religion that females dominated, but perhaps this was one. Misuka moved from my site meekly and ran to hug the golden clad woman. "You have served well," the woman spoke softly to her before turning to address the rest of us. 

"Women and Children of Broguewick … be at peace within our walls. Find comfort in our meditation. If you so wish, we shall teach you to never be afraid and in the face of your enemies, you shall remain steadfast and determined. With our guidance you will be strong." When the woman finished, she smiled as the staff looked at her rather dubiously. "Come, ladies, " she said "Let us start your training." 


	3. Chapter 3

The temple, as it we learned, was indeed a religious temple. These women called themselves the Nalani, which Misuka explained to me, meant from the heavens. It honestly seemed as though they were. In the weeks that followed, I became very close to Oriana, the high priestess. I still missed my mother so badly. Things were slowing down and it felt as if the danger had passed and for the first time in months, I was starting to realize what had happened and what I would never know. I grew distant even as I played with the children. I was a child no more.brOriana came to me very early one morning. In the last few weeks I had started waking later and later so it was rather difficult for me to focus when a tall, golden-clad woman came busting into my room. brGet up! She yelled while extending one heavy boot-clad foot up to my bed. No more sulking, Its pathetic. She added sharply as she gave a swift push and knocked me out of bed. br I mumbled sleepily. I was completely resistant to being woken up before noon and with a small peek between my eyelids, I noted that the sun had yet to rise so I let them fall closed again. I heard brisk footsteps walking away from me and I almost smiled in my hazy slumber. I won … or so I thought. I was already asleep again and never even heart the thunder of feet coming back towards me.brSuddenly I was drenched by a large bucket of water that two of Oriana's maids brought in. I shot up sputtering like I'd been nearly drowned, I was muttering as many curses as I could remember hearing my father say and before I knew it, I was slapped. Hard.brI never want to hear that sort of obscenity from your mouth again. The Priestess quietly said. You will get up, you will get dressed in something loose, and you will meet me outside. Before the sun comes up. And with that and a sour glare, she turned and walked out. The two maids just collected the bucket and with a dark glance at me, they followed their mistress.brI was left to stir a moment in my confusion. What had happened? Had I really said all of that? My cheek still burned from the slap and the embarrassment. After a moment of stunned silence, I chanced a glance out the window beside me and nearly came undone. I could see the sun illuminating the bottom of the skyscrapers. I knew it would rise fast, so I jumped up and started brushing my fingers through my hair as I kicked open my personal chest and started looking for something loose to wear.brAs it turned out, I found nothing overly loose except for a common house dress that I used to work in the garden in when I was younger. I was completely dismayed when the bust felt considerably tighter. I had only a few moments while running out my chamber door and towards the landing to accept that my breasts had grown. I could remember a time when I had been excited about that thought, but it seemed now to be just another problem in my life. Resigned to the fact that it was not tight enough to restrict me, I made it out onto the landing just as the sun broke over the farthest building. The sun had just now officially rose.brOriana was waiting for me and as I walked closer, I started to realize that she was dressed completely different than she had been before. In exchange of a luminescent gold cloak, she wore deep gold plated armor. Slightly old fashioned, but with just enough modernesque to make me admire it on sight. Settled back on her head was somewhat of a mask. Gold as well, the mask was molded as a beautiful woman's face would be. Deep eyes, slightly slanted in an exotic way and full seductive lips were the main attraction. I remember thinking that I wished I could look like that. I wasn't stupid though, beauty like that was made only for masks and magic.brAs I approached, Oriana turned to smile at me and in her face, I could not find a single trace of the savage anger that I had aroused in her. I was confused, but eternally grateful. While getting ready I had tore myself apart thinking about what she must have thought of me after I said those things to her. brJust on time, Lily…from now on you will be early. She said, the smile showing no signs of abatement. It is time that you started learning, young one. The days grow shorter and before you know it, the time will come for you to go back from whense you came. You know the evil that awaits you there and our seer's prophesize that you will find other troubles that you had not conceived of. We must prepare. brI don't understand, Oriana. What else could possibly go wrong? What can I possibly do against my father? He has been around a lot longer than me and his experience is older than I am. I moaned distressingly. At thirteen, I was turning into a priceless whiner, I promise you.brYoung one, with time you gain experience and with experience you gain confidence and with confidence the chain ends. Your father is at his peak now, but he will soon discover that there is a limit at how high you can climb without falling. Wise men understand that there is a limit and expand vertically until they rise to it and once reaching it…they change and expand horizontally into a broader person. brBroader person? I replied blankly. I don't wish to be fat, Oriana.brWith a laugh she pulled me into a hug and then quickly pushed me away and towards a transport on the landing. Get in, silly girl…we need to go get breakfast and start working on your weight. She was still laughing and it was all I could do not to giggle. So I grinned and it was okay. Because underneath the laughing she knew I had understood every word she'd said and in joking, I agreed to work from that day forward. I would be the best … of what I could not say. 


End file.
